Congratulations to our brilliant Dal Libraries’ colleague Robin Parker, one of 128 Pre- and Post-doctoral researchers receiving The Killam Trusts Scholarships, Dalhousie University’s most celebrated award!
Buccaneer Breakout: A Dal Libraries Escape Room — register now!
Get your team together and see if you can escape from Buccaneer Breakout: A Dal Libraries Escape Room! Teams of 2–4 are invited to sign up for this free, hour-long escape room adventure. Each time slot is limited to one team, so hurry up and save your spot!
Buccaneer Breakout requires at least 2 players. If you would like to register as an individual player and be placed with other individual players, please email lindsay.mcniff@dal.ca. We will do our best to accommodate you.
Register here: https://tinyurl.com/DalLibrariesEscapeRoom
Height-Adjustable Desk Donated to the Killam Library
The Dalhousie Libraries would like to thank long-time user of the Killam Library Mary MacDonald for her recent donation of a height-adjustable desk and a lamp.
Mary donated the desk for the use of students with disabilities. The desk can be found in the rear right-hand corner of the JJ Stewart Room, which is located just off of the Gord Downie Chanie Wenjack Legacy Space on the first floor of the Killam Library.
Mary herself attended Dalhousie for many years but she is now moving out of province. “I am going to miss the Killam Library as it was like a second home,” she said.
Thank you Mary for this generous donation!
You can find height-adjustable tables at all seven of our Dal Libraries locations.
Dal Reads 2019/20: Song of Rita Joe
We are pleased to announce this year’s Dal Reads book is Song of Rita Joe: Autobiography of a Mi’kmaq Poet. Free copies of the book are available at the Dalhousie Libraries and for the first time this year, an eBook is available by searching Song of Rita Joe through Novanet. If you don’t have an eReader app on your computer or device, you will need one before you can access the eBook. (Note: Most iOS devices have the iBooks app so you don’t need to download an eReader. Android devices will often have Google Books. Macs will open the eBook in iBooks and most PCs will open the eBook in Microsoft Edge.) Having problems? Contact support@dal.ca or visit one of the Dal Libraries’ IT Help Desks in the Killam or Sexton Libraries or the Wallace McCain Learning Commons.
About Song of Rita Joe:
Rita Joe was born in Cape Breton in 1932 and was a residential school survivor. She published six books of poetry and this autobiography. Rita wrote poetry because she wanted to inspire her people and tell her own story. “My greatest wish is that there will be more writing from my people, and that our children will read it. I have said again and again that our history would be different if it had been expressed by us.” (From Song of Rita Joe.)
About Dal Reads:
Dal Reads is designed to encourage people in the Dalhousie community to share their love of books. Launched in 2009, the program brings the Dalhousie community together through the shared experience of reading the same book and taking part in programming related to the book.
Programming for 2019/20:
Coming soon!
Happy Retirement, Darlene!
(l-r) Susan Hagen, Andre Richard and Darlene Hazel at a staff Christmas party in 2013.
by Michelle Paon
On September 1, Resources staff member Darlene Hazel retired from the Dal Libraries after a 37-year career. Darlene began work at Dalhousie in 1982 as a Clerk in the Killam Library’s Order Department. Over the years, she progressed to the position of Invoicing Assistant for the Dal Libraries. In 2017, she was one of several Libraries’ staff members to be honoured with a 35-year milestone certificate by then President Richard Florizone.
Darlene’s colleagues valued her frankness and sense of humour. They also appreciated the festive cheer that Darlene’s colourful decorations added to the workplace during seasonal holidays!
Please join us in wishing Darlene a happy retirement. Congratulations, Darlene!
Celebrating inaugural part‑time teaching award recipient Lindsay McNiff
SIM director Sandra Toze, Lindsay McNiff and interim dean Vivian Howard.
by Nicole Maunsell, Faculty of Management
This year, the Faculty of Management created a new award to celebrate part-time instructors who exhibit educational leadership, innovation and sustained commitment to excellence in teaching and learning. The inaugural recipient is Lindsay McNiff.
McNiff is the Learning & Instruction Librarian at Dalhousie Libraries and has been a part-time instructor in the School of Information Management since 2015, where she teaches courses on information retrieval and information literacy instruction. She programs and delivers an academic support workshop series for MI students, which includes topics such as citation management, conference posters and strategies for group work.
McNiff is known for providing practical opportunities for students to learn through role playing, simulations and deep learning exercises in groups. Students appreciate the way her assignments build off each other and include reflective elements.
“Lindsay is an empathetic and engaging teacher,” says Nicole Marcoux, a student in the MI program who nominated McNiff. “Her friendliness and earnest desire to support her students set her apart.”
Sandra Toze, SIM director, notes that “Lindsay exceeds the expectations of her role. She is an incredibly valuable part of the SIM family and has a significant impact on our student experience. She is highly deserving of this award.”
The Faculty of Management Part-time Teaching Award is awarded to a part-time, CUPE or sessional member of the Faculty of Management teaching staff. The award is chosen by a committee comprising the associate dean academic, faculty members and a student representative. The award was created as part of priority 2.3 of the Faculty’s strategic plan, which aims to provide initiatives that recognize the multiple contributions of students, staff and faculty.
GIS Centre’s Lunchless Learn Series Fall 2019
What is a “Lunchless Learn”? It’s a hands-on tutorial, held around lunchtime, open to all on campus — without the food.
A GIS, or Geographic Information System, is “a computer system for capturing, storing, checking, integrating, manipulating, analyzing and displaying data relating to positions on earth’s surface.” In other words, it’s a way at looking at the world differently.
This is a series to give people a taste of what GIS is and how it can be used. To accommodate more people we are offering the same session at different locations. These sessions are meant to be self contained. After the intro session, take only the topics that are important or of interest to you.
Due to the high level of interest in this series, we ask you to sign up for session(s). To sign up, contact gis@dal.ca
Intro – First Encounters of the GIS Kind
Wed., Sept. 18/1–2:30 p.m. | Killam Library, Room G70 (Studley Campus)
Mon., Sept. 23/1–2:30 p.m. | C Building, Room C300 (Sexton Campus)
Tues., Sept. 24/1–2:30 p.m. | Killam Library, Room G70 (Studley Campus)
Data: so you want to make a map – where and how to find data
Mon., Sept. 30/1–3 p.m. | C Building, Room C300 (Studley Campus)
Tues., Oct. 1/1–3 p.m. | Killam Library, Room G70 (Studley Campus)
Raster: how to become a raster master
Mon., Oct. 7/1–2:30 p.m. | C Building, Room C300 (Sexton Campus)
Tues., Oct. 8/1–2:30 p.m. | Killam Library, Room G70 (Studley Campus)
Carto: maps — the good, the bad, and the ugly
Tues., Oct. 15/1–2:30 p.m. | Killam Library, Room G70 (Studley Campus)
Mon., Oct. 21/1–2:30 p.m. | C Building, Room C300 (Sexton Campus)
ArcGIS Online – GIS that’s in the cloud(s)
Mon., Oct. 28/1–2:30 p.m. | C Building, Room C300 (Sexton Campus)
Tues., Oct. 29/1–2:30 p.m. | Killam Library, Room G70 (Studley Campus)
Charles Tourneur, New Stack Supervisor
We are pleased to announce Charles Tourner is the new Stack Supervisor in the Killam Library.
Charles has worked with the Dalhousie Libraries since 2009, demonstrating his technical expertise by working on both the Help Desk and the Access Services Desk.
Charles holds diplomas in Library Information Technology and Electronics Engineering from the Nova Scotia Community College. He is skilled in the area organization, which will serve him well in his new role.
Congratulations, Charles!
Brightspace Bootcamp for Faculty, Instructors & TAs
Classes are about to start, join the Dal Libraries for Brightspace Bootcamp. Drop-in for a session or stay all day. Bring your questions!
Mike Duggan, Michelle McDonald, and Norbert Addo are ready to help.
Friday, August 30
9 a.m.–2 p.m.
Room 2600 (LINC), Killam Memorial Library
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9–10 a.m. Brightspace Refresher
Would you like some help optimizing your course space? Maybe you need to add a TA into Brightspace. Come to our Brightspace refresher hour to get set up for your fall courses.
10–11 a.m. Collaborate/Panopto
Learn all the tips and tricks on running a successful webinar, recording it, and adding it to your course space.
11 a.m.–12 p.m. Top Hat (student response system)
Representatives from Top Hat will be on hand.
1–2 p.m. Urkund and New Features in Brightspace
Urkund is plagiarism detection software that you can add to your course space. Use it for individual files or for an entire assignment folder. We will also feature some new tools such as Assignment Annotation & Quick Eval.
Try Your Room Summer 2019
The Classroom Technologies Unit, part of Dalhousie Libraries’ Academic Technology Services Team (ATS), invite faculty and instructors to start the year off right by checking out the technology in classrooms on the Studley and Sexton campuses before classes start up again.
Classroom Technologies staff will be on hand to answer technology-related questions.
